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The basket case that is Australian federal politics is a stark reminder of how quickly change can happen – even to regimes that least expect it.
I can’t be the only person fed up with politics. And I’m not talking about the sandpit that is Canberra, but rather football’s interminable Congress impasse.
No wonder there was so much interest in APIA Leichhardt’s sensational 3-2 win over defending A-League champions Melbourne Victory in the FFA Cup last week. It gave us some actual football to talk about.
I couldn’t agree more with Fox Sports commentator Simon Hill that the FFA Cup is the best thing Football Federation Australia has done in the past few years, and he’s absolutely right that our football desperately needs a narrative.
It’s also interesting to read that the powers-that-be have put together a 100-page report called ‘Vision 2020’ which reportedly lays out a detailed plan for the game’s future.
But at this stage of the game it’s a bit like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
It’s all well and good for the FFA to author a report that should probably have been written five years ago, but the stark reality is that we honestly have no idea what the football landscape is going to look like in a month or two.
And Steven Lowy’s protestations that he was only trying to do what’s best for the game were noteworthy for all the things he didn’t say.
“We cannot allow our game to be controlled by private and largely foreign interests,” Lowy said via a media statement – conveniently neglecting the fact the FFA has encouraged those same foreign interests to invest millions of dollars in A-League clubs for years.
And the idea that only the FFA has the best interests of the game at heart has been a recurrent theme throughout this Congress fiasco.
FFA Chairman Steven Lowy (Photo by Don Arnold/Getty Images)
But do they? Because there was one aspect of APIA’s win last week that didn’t generate much debate.
If the FFA are so adept at running football and none of these other stakeholders know what they’re doing, then why did a team from the New South Wales Premier League beat the A-League champions?
That’s not intended as a glib statement, although I suspect some won’t appreciate my train of thought.
What I mean is this. If only clubs run under the auspices of the FFA are deemed worthy of elite status, then why was a semi-professional team like APIA able to beat a bunch of full-time pros either side of two vital state league fixtures, in an unfamiliar venue, with an unheralded Japanese import like Tasuku Sekiya playing the starring role?
How come clubs like APIA can play such exciting football – they smashed Rockdale City 8-2 in their NSWPL semi-final on Saturday night – despite having their access to the top tier of the game and the financial rewards it might bring blocked by the very organisation entrusted to run it?
Apia Leichhardt Tigers players celebrate after Tasuku Sekiya scores. (AAP Image/Brendan Esposito)
Could it be that instead of helping the game, the FFA has been actively hindering it? I think we all know how I feel.
And it’s telling that in so many of the statements handed down from executives like Lowy junior, one group almost never seems to get a mention – fans.
Having already alienated fans of traditional clubs like APIA by denying them the chance to ever play top-flight football, the FFA lost the backing of the majority of A-League fans years a couple of years ago.
Yet they didn’t notice until it was too late, because frankly they were too busy looking out for themselves to bother worrying about the constituents they were supposed to be serving.
A bit like our politicians.
The FFA in its current guise should be applauded for all the good things they’ve done for our game, but now it’s time to reset.
Whatever happens from here on in, the next chapter in our football narrative needs to be much more inclusive than in the past few years.